“…companies are learning as much as they can about their customers so they can turn around and sell us exactly what we want. It creates a herd mentality, as everybody aims for the big, fat middle.” – Hugo Lindgren

It shouldn't come as a surprise that all of the products we use in our lives are a result of clumping humanity into a giant collective where individuality is stripped away and what is left is a mass of sameness. The Perfect Suburbia Collection, shown here with nine products, was inspired by the collective vs. individual ideation process that companies go through. It looks at technology creation through the lens of a fictitious “perfect” suburban family and asks, Who are the people that are being studies? What kind of personalities do they have? What products would make their lives easier? What if technology hardware was more tailored to the individual rather than the collective?

This project is the beginning of a larger conversation in regards to innovation – even if that innovation seems pointless – and the way we design and research products. In regards to developing a new way of thinking, Robert F. Kennedy said, “There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why… I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?” That’s the perfect question on innovation. Why not indeed.